I’m a Dad Who Turned to DoorDashing After 20 Years in Sales

This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ilya Brunshteyn, a 39-year-old former salesperson and dad based in Alabama. His identity and former employment have been verified. This story has been edited for length and clarity.

I started out in sales at 18, pounding the phone at a mortgage brokerage, and I’ve been working in sales since, at companies like Tesla, Wells Fargo, and Securitas Technologies.

About two weeks short of Christmas last year, I got laid off. Now I haven’t been able to get a full-time sales position for nine months. I’ve been applying for a minimum of 10 to 15 sales positions a day, and I’ve had about six interviews.

I’ve been doing this for 20 years. I’m obviously looking for work in sales, but maybe I could also lead a team. I could share my skills at this point in my career.

But I’m finding nothing out there other than entry-level $35,000 to $50,000 jobs — and I’m not getting those jobs either because I’m overqualified. I don’t know how to express to them that I’ll take the $50,000 right now. I have a family to feed.

If I left a job in the past, I’d be without work for maybe three weeks. I used to have recruiters reach out to me, trying to steal me from my company to sell for them. Now, the few recruiters I do hear from are offering me 100% commission at a mom-and-pop shop, and I have absolutely no confidence in what they’re doing.

Occasionally, someone real will reach out, and either I lose out to another candidate or I’m overqualified.

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It’s just hard to understand. You go on LinkedIn and you see tons of jobs. Then you either don’t hear from them, or they’ll close out the position, or they’ll write you an email. I have a feeling a lot of these places are now using AI scrubbers. I’m just getting autogenerated emails saying, “Thank you for applying, but unfortunately, we’re moving in another direction.”

I’ve turned to DoorDash full-time

When I was working full-time and making a salary without commission, I DoorDashed in my free time as a side hustle to save up for anything that wasn’t falling in the budget.

When I lost my job, I didn’t have a lot of savings, so I decided to work for DoorDash while I looked for work. I’m putting in eight hours per day, but I’m probably actively Dashing five or five and a half hours per day. The other two and a half, I’m waiting in parking lots. I’m bringing in as much as roughly $560 a week if I’m able to do it five days a week.

I’m averaging about $31 an hour by choosing the option to get paid in tips. When you subtract gas and other expenses, though, it’s probably closer to $25 an hour.

Now I’m turning down jobs that pay $20 to $25 an hour, because I’m making the same money DoorDashing full time, without working a forklift, manually unloading trailers, or mixing cement. I’m hanging out in my car, in air conditioning, and no one’s over my shoulder. So, that part of it is kind of cool. If I were making $60 an hour, I would keep doing it.

‘I was the guy who always supported his family’

I’m originally from Ukraine, and I come from the kind of people who don’t believe in mental health. We believe in sucking it up.

But I’ve been depressed and beaten down. I was the guy who always supported his family. When I was married, my wife didn’t work, and I had four girls at home, including my two stepdaughters. Now, I feel hopeless, and I don’t know how I’m going to make rent next month or pay the bills.

When I was making good money, my kids had a lot of fun. I spent all my money on them, so we would be all over the place, going to fairs, pools, water parks, vacations, and even basic things like going out to eat or getting ice cream.

Now, I’m cooking at home for the first time since before I was married. A carton of eggs and bacon will last me and my kids a week, whereas even fast food is not cheap. We do a lot of free activities now, like going to parks where they can play with other kids.

But I still hear it from them. They notice the change. They’re like, “Dad, why aren’t we doing this? Dad, why can’t we go here?” I’m honest with them and I say, “Dad doesn’t make enough money right now to be able to spend $300 at an amusement park. Dad doesn’t have the $60 extra to buy you a Labubu. That’s why you got the one from the gas station that apparently is not real.”

What breaks my heart the most is that if I were single, I wouldn’t care. I can eat ramen noodles and not go out forever if I have to. But I have two daughters that I don’t want to deprive of the things I was deprived of as a child growing up in Ukraine. We came here to give our kids a better life.

Have you struggled to find a job? We want to hear from you. Reach out to the reporter via email at aaltchek@insider.com or through the secure-messaging app Signal at aalt.19.